Atlas Shrugged: Part III

A disappointing ending.

Main Plot Points:

This third and final film completes the epic trilogy adapted from the novel written by Ayn Rand.

After 12 years of suffering mysterious disappearances of society’s most-productive individuals, the nations economy is on the verge of collapse.

As the government pursues policies imposing even greater brutality against those remaining, Dagny Taggart, Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental, must make a choice between saving the nations collapsing infrastructure or the man she has come to love – the man who would stop the motor of the World.

What We Thought:

It’s hard when you really want to like something and then don’t.

I’m one of the few people who really enjoyed the first Atlas Shrugged film. Having never read the book, I was very intrigued by the premise and found the film to be thoughtful and enjoyable.

The second movie, with its completely different cast, wasn’t quite as good, but I still liked it and it had a neat cliffhanger ending that promised an answer to the thematic question of “Who is John Gault?”

Unfortunately, this third and final part of the trilogy (also featuring an entirely new cast), is a big let down. Not only because John Galt seems more like a terrorist than anything else, but the film itself just isn’t that well made.

Maybe it’s just following the book, but for the main character to be in the middle of a huge crisis — with literally hundreds of workers awaiting her orders — and then to just stop and go have a love scene in a dirty underground railroad supply room? It doesn’t do much to endear you to the characters.

While I did like some of the new cast (Kristoffer Polaha does a nice job as John Galt), others are wasted. The producers went to the trouble to hire Rob Morrow to play Hank Reardon (played by Defiance‘s Grant Bowler and Chicago PD‘s Jason Beghe in the previous films) and then don’t give him a sinlge line of dialogue. What?

I had hoped this final act would turn the trilogy into something great, but instead it brings the whole series down.